M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy)

 

This beautiful face-on pinwheel galaxy is number 101 in Messier's list, but was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Mechain.  Also known as a "grand design spiral", it spans about 184,000 light years across (twice as large as our own Milky Way!) and the light captured in this photo is over 22 million years old.  Astronomers estimate the number of stars in this behemoth at over 1 trillion!  Some of the brighter spots along the spiral arms are active star forming regions, while three supernovae (think stellar death) have been observed in this massive galaxy.  

Photo Details

June 8, 2024

Orion 8" Astrograph on Celestron AVX Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Skyglow filter

21 subframes at 3 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 1 hour 3 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop

First Solar Time Lapse

This is my first attempt at a Solar time lapse.  It covers about an hour on the morning of March 30, 2024.  Images were captured 15 seconds apart with a Lunt solar scope in double-stacked mode.  Batch processing was done in Autostakkert, followed by aligning and curve adjustment in ImPPG.  Final processing and converting to video was done in Photoshop.

 

Springtime Bees and Easter Eggs

 

While bees are pollinating springtime flowers on Earth, it's a great time to see the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) and go hunting for eggs (Messier 1 - Crab Nebula).  Both these objects have a long history.  The Beehive has been observed since antiquity, though it wasn't until Galileo looked through his telescope that it was recognized as a cluster of stars rather than a single object.  The earliest record of the Crab Nebula came in July of 1054 when a bright object appeared near the Sun and was even observed in the daytime through the end of that month.  It was observable with the naked eye at night for the next two years.  Though considered a bad omen when it was first observed, we now understand it as a supernova remnant and has a beautiful structure that has an overall egg shape.  The Beehive is only about 610 light years from Earth though there's about two dozen stars that dominate the image, astronomers have attributed about 200 stars to this open cluster.

Photo Details

April 29, 2024

M44 (Beehive)

AstroTech 65Q on Celestron AVX Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Skyglow filter

15 subframes at 3 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 45 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop

M1 (Crab Nebula)

Seestar S50

Total Exposure Time = 34 minutes

Image Processing in Photoshop

Sol from September 23

 

We are 15 days from the North American Total Solar Eclipse.  It should be a fantastic show given the level of solar activity...now, we just need clear skies.  

Photo Details

September 4, 2023
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope

ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar Activity in August 2023

 

I'm slowly working my way through images taken over the summer. These were from back in August and the level of activity remained high.  

Photo Details

August 19, 2023
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope

ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Sol in Early June 2023

 

These were from back in June and it's amazing to see all the filaments and clouds of gas hovering over the solar disk.  They form in magnetic loops and are just off the surface of the sun and are cooler than the chromosphere below them.  Solar weather at its finest.

Photo Details

June 3, 2023
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope

ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Jupiter at Opposition and Saturn

 

Jupiter reach opposition on November 3 and it was a reasonably clear Friday night so I packed up my gear and headed out to my dark sky location to catch the Jovian Giant in all its glory.  The seeing conditions weren't great, so I didn't get as much detail as I was hoping for, but did pick up Europa just before it started transiting across the disk and the Great Red Spot was well positioned for the image.  I also was able to make out the Cassini Division (gap in rings) on Saturn.  Overall, a reasonably productive night.

Photo Details

November 3, 2023
Celestron 7" Mak-Cas
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono through RGB filters
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in Registax 6
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar CatchUp

 

It's been a hot and humid summer around here so I haven't been out much imaging much of anything, especially the sun.  These were captured back in May and I finally got around to processing them.  So much activity!

Photo Details

May 28, 2023
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope

Orion 8" Astrograph with white light filter
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Lots 'o Galaxies

 

We had a rare clear night for this time of year last evening and it may be a while before I'm able to venture to my dark sky location again.  I decided to try and make the most of it and capture as many galaxies as I could in one shot.  By my count, I got at least 9.  These are near Virgo and range in distance from about 30 million light years to 65 million light years from us on Earth.  That time scale puts them around the time the dinosaurs went extinct to a bit more recently.  I've imaged some of these independently before, but this is a pretty good collection.

Photo Details

June 9, 2023

AstroTech 65Q on CGEM II Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Skyglow filter

30 subframes at 5 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 2 hours 30 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop

Messier 13 - Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

 

I first imaged M13 in 2013 and it was my first serious attempt at astrophotography.  You can see that image and post here.  Ten years later, some better equipment, a lot of new skills and it's a whole different view.  Some interesting facts about M13:
*  First observed by Edmond Halley in 1714
*  Consists of about 1 million stars
*  It's about 26,000 light years from Earth
*  It's visible without aid under dark skies with good vision

Photo Details

May 27, 2023
Celestron 7" Mak-Cas
SBIG STF-8300C Camera
10 subframes at 5 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 50 minutes

Image Acquisition in CCDOps

Image Stacking in Deep Sky Stacker
Image Processing in Photoshop

Solar Maximum Continues

 

Solar maximum continues to roar.  These were taken in early May and I shot both in H-alpha double-stacked along with a simple white light filter.  The H-alpha provides so much detail, but I also like seeing some good detail in the sunspot activity shown through the white light filter.

Photo Details

May 7, 2023
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope

Orion 8" Astrograph with white light filter
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop